Author of Life #1

The most important story you can tell is your own. 

Stories are an integral part of the human experience. Without them, life would definitely not be the same. Stories help us to connect with and learn from one another. They give us hope, teach us lessons, force us to think, and so much more. 

In my own life, stories have given me hope to push on when I wanted to give up. Dealing with my mental illnesses, especially as a kid and teenager, I turned to stories to help give me hope. Many nights I would read for hours, hoping to make sense of my life through the lives of the characters I was reading about. I would go to movies and study all that I saw, trying to take a lesson away that I could apply to my own life. Stories were my refuge, my safe space. 

And I dreamed of crafting my own stories to help others like me.

I am a writer and photographer—stories are my life. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to realize that the most important story that I can tell is my own. My life has been filled with joy and sadness, struggles and triumphs. Sharing the many stories that exist in the fabric of my life can give someone else the hope that I sought from other people’s stories. Whether it is writing on my blog, sharing photographs from my adventures, or turning to fiction to relate to life in the real world, I hope that the stories that I create can somehow change another person’s life. 

They don’t have to be the most eloquent or have the most words. As long as my stories can be shared with someone else, that is enough for me.